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And I'm back in my nice, dry Colorado. Except it isn't dry. It's humid. I must have brought it back with me, but as we had a nice, hard rain yesterday evening I cannot complain. The pasture was starting to get pretty brown.

Banana's leg healed up while I was gone, but it's no longer perfect:

Yes, her toes are incredibly long, she should have had them done over a month ago but the wound wouldn't allow it. Bulge on back of leg above fetlock is callus and scar tissue from the slow healing of the wound. The bulge on front, sort of a 1/3 up the cannon) is from the pressure sore she got from the bandage when her leg swelled underneath when the tendon sheath got infected. I got to ride her down the road yesterday after I got back. The vet was all, "Can you just take her out when she's been laid up for 7 weeks?" Why yes, yes I can. She was very forward, and looky, but perfectly well behaved for her 1.5 mi walk. She felt sound, which was a relief, and this morning her leg almost looked better than it had last night. I think I'm imagining that though.

If all continues well, in a week I can do a little trotting and then onwards.

Argh. The leg.

So, when last I posted about Naners' leg it was looking better. Then it wasn't better. That thing refused to heal. It was finally healed enough to stop wrapping it, but it was leaking something clear. That's when we realized she'd nicked her tendon sheath when she cut/punctured it. Argh. So, I had to start wrapping it again. The swelling had never quite gone down, but one day it was a bit bigger and hot. And her bandage had given her pressure sores. Vet feared the tendon sheath was getting infected. This was two days before I was leaving to go visit my parents, the day my vet was leaving to go on her annual solo pack trip in the mountains.

So, vet gave her an antibiotic shot and since the bandage was giving her issues, and the wound itself was finally looking good, we left the wrap off.

Two days later, the morning I left:

Phenomenally better looking, no longer hot. I left not worried. The vet who is sort of roughly partnered with my vet was over at the house yesterday to give her the second shot and hubby reports that he said the leg looks great. I'm relieved. Normal vet will check on her tomorrow and the rest of the time I'm gone ( since she lives next door) so I don't need to worry anymore. I'm very sad about those pressure sores though. They're going to grow back in white and her beautiful legs will have blemishes!

I'm a horrible horse mommy

Well, I've had an interesting time as of late. I was sicker than I've ever been in my life. I was teaching horse parts at Pony Club, handed a sticker to a kid and said, "And now I'm going to go puke in this bush."

I didn't make it to the bush.

The forty minute drive home was hell. I had to pull over multiple times. And, every time I vomited it was putting pressure on a nerve so I had shooting pains down my legs and up my back.

So, there I was, on all fours in the gravel on the side of the road. It was horrible. I got home and alternated between almost crying because my back hurt and almost passing out while my intestines tried to exit my body through my stomach. After 45 minutes of that, texting with a friend who's a doctor, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and had hubby drive me to the ER. I'm so glad I did that. Some fluids, anti-nausea meds and pain killers for the back made life much better. I felt crappy for the next couple of days, going out to the barn just enough to feed everyone, but didn't puke again after the ER.

I was puking Thursday night. Sunday evening this is what I found on Banana's leg:

That's just above the back of the left fore fetlock. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Fortunately, J the vet was on call, so she finished her dinner and came up. It looks particularly gruesome there as it was covered in wound crud. J thinks it was about 48 hours old there. Too late to stitch it, and it probably needed to be.

Naners had to be locked up. She was not thrilled about that, though Ollie is quite happy to have her with him all the time.

Bandage change on Tuesday had pus. So, she was started on antibiotics.

This is the wound on Thurs:

Not healed as much as we would like it to be. But then, there was today's (Sat)

Now we're looking better. There's crud on it because it was dust storming and that stuff stuck between when I got the bandage off and picked up the camera (it was very windy.) I'm liking that it's not so raw looking. Pic sent to the vet, but she seems to be incommunicado (a good thing).

I can't believe I missed that wound for multiple days, but as you could tell above, I was sicker than I think I've ever been in my life. She hasn't been off at all. I have no idea how she did it, there are uncountable ways and the wound doesn't indicate any one over the others, though it definitely isn't a wire wound (too deep)